E7-24123. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Health and Diet Survey

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES:

Fax written comments on the collection of information by January 14, 2008.

ADDRESSES:

To ensure that comments on the information collection are received, OMB recommends that written comments be faxed to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: FDA Desk Officer, FAX: [phone], or e-mailed to [e-mail]. All comments should be identified with the OMB control number 0910-0545. Also include the FDA docket number found in brackets in the heading of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jonna Capezzuto, Office of the Chief Information Officer (HFA-250), Food and Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857,301-827-4659.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In compliance with 44 U.S.C. 3507, FDA has submitted the following proposed collection of information to OMB for review and clearance.

Health and Diet Survey—(OMB Control Number 0910-0545)—Extension

FDA is seeking extension of OMB approval for the Health and Diet Survey, which is a voluntary consumer survey intended to gauge and track consumer attitudes, awareness, knowledge, and behavior regarding various topics related to health, nutrition, and physical activity. The authority for FDA to collect the information derives from the Commissioner of Food and Drugs' authority provided in section 903(d)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 393(d)(2)).

The survey consists of two independent data collection activities. One collection, entitled “Health and Diet Survey—General Topics,” tracks a broad range of consumer attitudes, awareness, knowledge, and self-reported behaviors related to key diet and health issues. The other collection, entitled “Health and Diet Survey—Dietary Guidelines Supplement,” will provide FDA with updated information about consumer attitudes, awareness, knowledge, and behavior regarding various elements of nutrition and physical activity based on the key recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are jointly issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture every 5 years.

The information to be collected with the Health and Diet Survey—General Topics will include: (1) Awareness of diet-disease relationships; (2) food and dietary supplement label use; (3) dietary practices including strategies to lose or maintain weight; and (4) awareness and knowledge of dietary fats. The information to be collected with the Health and Diet Survey—Dietary Guidelines Supplement will include: (1) Opinions about the nutrition information provided by the government; (2) awareness and familiarity with government nutrition programs and publications such as the Food Guide Pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans; (3) knowledge of the relationships between food choices, exercise habits, weight loss, and health; (4) choices surrounding exercise, calorie intake, saturated and trans fats, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dairy, fish, meat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, salt, and sugar. The survey will also ask about use of Federal nutrition information, special diet, weight status, health status, and demographics.

FDA and other Federal agencies will use the information from the Health and Diet Survey to evaluate and develop strategies and programs to encourage and help consumers adopt healthy lifestyles. The information will also help FDA and other Federal agencies evaluate and track consumer awareness and behavior as outcome measures of their achievement in improving public health.

Description of Respondents: The respondents are adults, age 18 and older, drawn from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Participation will be voluntary.

In the Federal Register of May 25, 2007 (72 FR 29332), FDA published a 60-day notice requesting public comment on the information collection provisions. No comments were received.

Table 1.—Estimated Annual Reporting Burden¹

Activity	No. of Respondents	Annual Frequency per Response	Total Annual Responses	Hours per Response	Total Hours
General Topics: Pretest	27	1	27	0.25	6.75
General Topics: Screener	10,000	1	10,000	0.02	200
General Topics: Survey	3,000	1	3,000	0.25	750
Dietary Guidelines Supplement: Screener	4,000	1	4,000	0.02	80
Dietary Guidelines Supplement: Survey	1,200	1	1,200	0.22	264
Total					1,300.75
1 There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of information.

FDA has based its estimate of the number of respondents and the burden hours per response on its experience with the Health and Diet Survey over the past 3 years. The agency will use a screener to select an eligible adult respondent in each household to participate in the survey. For the Health and Diet Survey—General Topics data collection activity a total of 3,000 adults in the 50 states and the District of Columbia will be interviewed by telephone. We estimate that it will take a respondent 1.2 minutes (0.02 hours) to complete the screening questions and 15 minutes (0.25 hours) to complete the entire survey. Prior to the administration of the survey, the agency plans to conduct a pretest to identify and resolve potential problems. The pretest will be conducted with 27 participants; we estimate that it will take a respondent 15 minutes (0.25 hours) to complete the pretest. For the Health and Diet Survey—Dietary Guidelines Supplement data collection activity a total of 1,200 adults in the 50 states and the District of Columbia will be interviewed by telephone. We estimate that it will take a respondent 1.2 minutes (0.02 hours) to complete the screening questions and 13.2 minutes (0.22 hours) to complete the entire survey. Target sample size of the combined data collection is 4,200 respondents who complete the survey.

Dated: December 7, 2007.

Jeffrey Shuren,

Assistant Commissioner for Policy.